RESEARCH BLOG
A wire story that caught our eye this morning arrived under the headline
"The Three Books You Must Read if You Want to Argue About Gold".
In it, Bloomberg editor Tom Keene recommends a trio of publications worthy of
examination. (A well-read version of his second endorsement, The Power of
Gold by Peter L. Bernstein, is a permanent fixture on this writer's
desk!)
The point is that before jumping into precious metal, it is essential to understand
as much as possible about the history of gold and its contemporary role. And
on this score, Anthony Hart has been providing extremely valuable insights
recently on our Research
blog.
After examining 12 reasons that justify the ownership of gold, this week
he looked at 12 counter-arguments, making the point that readily accepting
the positives and ignoring the negatives "is potentially a one way
trip to the poor house".
Anthony discusses contentious issues about gold under headings such as
"No Yield", "Ownership Costs", "Government
Confiscation" and "Barbarous Relic", before weighing the pros
and cons of ownership against each other and concluding that it's unwise to
put all your eggs in one basket.
With significant understanding of gold, Anthony offers his personal
perspective to end the series: "The way I personally view ownership
of gold is as a pure savings and wealth preservation vehicle, with a little
insurance thrown in,as opposed to as an 'investment' (investment in this case
being an allocation of capital which is put at risk in the attempt to
significantly grow overall wealth)."
